The unexpected threat to Trump's plan

Tucker Carlson  

The unexpected threat to Trump's plan: "All it takes" 

Of:  

John Edgar  

Published: Yesterday 22.10

NEWS  

Tucker Carlson, 53, was fired from Fox News after a series of scandals.  

The star is now believed to be able to take his millions of followers into the 2024 presidential election. 

- The only threat to Donald Trump, says experienced Republican strategist Rick Wilson.  

So far, Trump is unchallenged first among the Republicans who have announced that they are aiming for the White House next year.  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen as the former president's primary challenger in the Republican primary, has yet to announce his candidacy.  

Now some political experts believe that fired TV star Tucker Carlson may take a place in the starting field.  

And in that case, it is in Trump's half of the pitch that he will win the match.  

The worst threat to Trump  

The former Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who among other things worked for George Bush the elder, believes that Carlson would be "a mortal threat" against Trump's candidacy.

Photo: Seth Wenig/AP  

He believes that it is probably stated in the settlement with Fox News that Carlson cannot take a job with a competing channel or platform.  

- Which leads us to a fascinating opportunity. Say he's running for office. He is rich enough. He could instantly raise more money than anyone except Trump, maybe even surpass him. He is polarizing, horrible and utterly immoral. In short, better than Ron DeSantis for the grassroots, Wilson states according to Newsweek.

- I think he is the only Republican who poses a threat to Trump in the primary. Fame, money, mental acuity, cynicism, isolationism and an obvious love for authoritarian movements is a strong secret sauce for the MAGA base.  

Got fired unexpectedly  

Republican strategist John Feehery echoes similar sentiments in an interview with Newsweek. 

- If Tucker were to decide to run, he would be an immediate threat to Trump and the other candidates, he says.  

Photo: Seth Wenig/AP  

The announcement hit political circles in Washington like a bombshell on April 24.  

The man who was recently called "the most powerful conservative person in the United States" and who drew a daily multi-million audience to his program on Fox News was fired with immediate effect by the television channel.  

Since then, there has been speculation as to what was behind the decision - and what Tucker Carlson might do next.

Massive following  

For those on the Republican side, especially those thinking about running for president, Tucker Carlson could be crucial. 

With a daily viewership of more than three million and even more following him on other channels, the conservative profile has the power to lift, or sink, a candidate.

Photo: Charles Krupa/AP  

In the weeks before Carlson's unexpected resignation, 

Donald Trump had a number of private conversations with him, trying to secure his support ahead of the primaries.  

Now TV star Tucker Carlson may become a problem for Trump, but in an unexpected way.  

Newsweek magazine has spoken to a number of experts about the likelihood that the TV star will decide to target the White House himself.

Has everything a candidate needs

- It is difficult to dismiss the speculation that Tucker Carlson would be a capable candidate. Whether he can defeat Trump in a primary election or win the presidential election itself is another question, Thomas Gift, an expert on American politics at University College London, told Newsweek.

- But he definitely has all three things a candidate needs: a household name, devoted supporters and a sense of where his party is at this moment. Then you have to add that many Republicans see him as a martyr right now and he could throw himself into the primary campaign where being a pariah is a bonus.

Roderick Kiewiet, an American political science professor, is more skeptical.

- Carlson is not a serious candidate. "It takes enormous effort and funding to launch a presidential campaign and I don't see how he would be able to do that," he told Newsweek.

Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

Primitive populism

But adds:

- If someone had claimed in 2015 that Donald Trump would become president, I would have thought he was crazy.

However, Thomas Gift believes that the years with Trump have moved the conservative American voters even more to the right and that "a new charismatic leader like Carlson should not be underestimated".

Kiewiet says that "it would be a mistake" to only categorize Tucker Carlson as part of the far right.

- His steadfast opposition to covid vaccines and even greater opposition to helping Ukraine are more expressions of a primitive populism. Carlson has also spread other really strange stuff, like UFOs and cattle mutations, he says.